Israelis Are a No-Show at Peace Session : Mideast: The abortive meeting provokes a harsh exchange between the U.S. and Jerusalem.

The latest phase of the Middle East peace talks got off to a predictably acrimonious start Wednesday when Arab negotiators showed up, Israeli delegates did not and each side accused the other of trying to torpedo the process.

The abortive meeting, a clear setback to American dreams of shattering decades-old taboos, also provoked a harsh exchange between Israel and the United States, with Jerusalem’s top foreign policy spokesman saying of the Bush Administration: “What do we need them for?”

With Americans, Arabs and Israelis all declaring that they have no intention of “playing games” with Middle East peace, Syrian, Lebanese, Jordanian and Palestinian delegates arrived at the State Department just before the American-appointed hour of 10 a.m. to go through the motions of meetings that all knew would not take place because Israel had made it clear that it would not send its bargainers before Monday.

“We did not accomplish anything, because we couldn’t talk to the wall,” Jordan’s chief delegate, Abdel-Salam Majali, told reporters as he led his group out of the building after about half an hour.

Across town, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s deputy foreign minister and chief foreign policy spokesman, faced a bank of television cameras and ranks of reporters to declare: “We wouldn’t be having this press conference if we didn’t know about . . . the Arabs’ attempt to play this game in front of public opinion. We’re not interested in that.”

The press conference was one of at least 50 newspaper and television interviews that Netanyahu has scheduled for the rest of this week. The close aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said he is in Washington to “coordinate” the work of Israeli negotiators, who will not arrive until Sunday.

Arab delegates said that they will return to the State Department today, again ready to meet the Israelis who they know will not be there. But they declined to commit themselves to attend Monday, when the Israelis say they will be ready to talk. However, individual delegates said the Arabs will stay in Washington as long as there is any chance of starting substantive negotiations.

Zalman Shoval, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, said the Israeli side will be ready to plunge into substantive issues next week. Earlier, Israel had said that it was prepared to talk only about procedures and a date for subsequent talks in or near the Middle East.

However, Shoval said Israel hopes to keep the Washington talks short--”one or two or three days. It will not go on for a long time here.”

Netanyahu acknowledged that the dispute over starting dates is a “trivial” matter. But he said Israel demanded a postponement to protest what it considered an overly active role by the United States. Shamir’s government is concerned that the Arabs will try to negotiate through American middlemen instead of talking directly to Israel.

“The important thing is to stop (the Arabs from) relying on the United States--what do we need them for?” Netanyahu said.

Bushra Kanafani, the Syrian delegation spokesman, replied to Netanyahu in a press conference of her own: “If the Israelis are complaining about the role of their best friend in the world, the U.S. government, whom do they trust?”

State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said Israel’s failure to show up Wednesday was “disappointing.” And she chided Israel for establishing a new West Bank settlement Tuesday.

“Because settlements are an obstacle to peace, we are particularly disturbed at this development on the eve of the resumption of bilateral talks,” Tutwiler said.

At his press conference, Netanyahu complained that the Arabs “have not picked up the phone in response to our phone calls” to start direct talks.

He also ridiculed the Arab delegations for “going to a room that they know in advance is going to be empty.”

But the empty-room game has been played by both sides. In Madrid last month, at the inauguration of the peace talks, Israeli delegates made a show of turning up for a meeting with the Syrians that they had been informed in advance would not occur. That meeting did get under way about 12 hours later.